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Photo: Jason Kempin | Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Charley Frank Pride was a rare commodity. Not only was he an icon with universal appeal, but his six-decade career also embodied a strong message that many to this day still don t understand. He was living proof that being true to yourself and what you love is the highest form of cultural authenticity, and that country music as much as music of any other tradition belongs to everyone. Pride, who died Dec. 12 at 86 of complications from COVID-19, was the first Black superstar in country music s modern era, although he knew better than most that he wasn t the idiom s first African American performer.
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Photo: Jason Kempin | Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Charley Frank Pride was a rare commodity. Not only was he an icon with universal appeal, but his six-decade career also embodied a strong message that many to this day still don t understand. He was living proof that being true to yourself and what you love is the highest form of cultural authenticity, and that country music as much as music of any other tradition belongs to everyone. Pride, who died Dec. 12 at 86 of complications from COVID-19, was the first Black superstar in country music s modern era, although he knew better than most that he wasn t the idiom s first African American performer.
Charley Pride: I m Just Me
American Masters – Charley Pride: I’m Just Me traces the improbable journey of Charley Pride, from his humble beginnings as a sharecropper’s son on a cotton farm in segregated Sledge, Mississippi to his career as a Negro League baseball player and his meteoric rise as a trailblazing country music superstar. The new documentary reveals how Pride’s love for music led him from the Delta to a larger, grander world. In the 1940s, radio transcended racial barriers, making it possible for Pride to grow up listening to and emulating Grand Ole Opry stars like Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff. The singer arrived in Nashville in 1963 while the city roiled with sit-ins and racial violence. But with boldness, perseverance, and undeniable musical talent, he managed to parlay a series of fortuitous encounters with music industry insiders into a legacy of hit singles, a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award and a place in the Country Music Hall o
Steve Helber
Singer Charley Pride sings during the Black Tie & Boots ball as part of the Inaugural festivities Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013 in National Harbor, Md. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Terry Wyatt
NASHVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 02: Charlie Daniels, Charley Pride, Dwight Yoakam and Carrie Underwood perform onstage at the 50th annual CMA Awards at the Bridgestone Arena on November 2, 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/WireImage)
Rick Diamond
NASHVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 14: Honorees Charlie Daniels and Charley Pride attend the 2017 NATD Honors Gala at Hermitage Hotel on November 14, 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for NATD)